Sia

 Sia Kate Isobelle Furler (born 18 December 1975), better known as Sia (pron.: /sɪə/or pron.: /ˈsiːə/), is an Australian downtempo, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter. In 2000, her single "Taken for Granted" was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. Her 2008 album Some People Have Real Problems peaked in the top 30 on the Billboard 200. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, she won the award for 'Best Music DVD' and received six nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 and won 'Best Independent Release' and 'Best Pop Release' for We Are Born and 'Best Video' for the song "Clap Your Hands". Furler has also collaborated and performed with Zero 7, Christina Aguilera and more recently Hilltop Hoods, David Guetta, Flo Rida, Afrojack, Shakira and Rihanna. She collaborated on Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits, "Titanium" with DJ David Guetta, and "Wild Ones" with rapper Flo Rida. Both achieved international success Furler was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 18 December 1975. She went to North Adelaide Primary School. Her father, Phil B. Colson, was a musician in various bands including Foreday Riders, Rum Jungle, Fat Time, Jump Back Jack, and Mount Lofty Rangers. Her mother, Loene Furler, is a singer, songwriter, musician, and art lecturer who also provided backing vocals for Mount Lofty Rangers. Her parents were both in an Adelaide rockabilly band, The Soda Jerx. Furler is the niece of U.K. based actor/singer Kevin Colson. Singer/songwriter Colin Hay of Men at Work though not related, is affectionately known as "Uncle Colin". "Philby" Colson played slide guitar on Men at Work's last single, "Everything I Need" from their album Two Hearts, then toured extensively with "The Colin Hay Band" in 1988. In her 2008 NPR Music interview, she said that she had mimicked other singers while growing up and counts Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Sting as her early influences. She attended Adelaide High School. At fourteen, Furler said, her parents had enough money to pay for her getting her now famous snaggletooth removed, or a chance to attend school in Italy. Furler chose Italy, and she said that she doesn't regret keeping her snaggletooth. Discovering her voice in a karaoke bar while in Italy, taking a university gap year, Sia explains to Gigwise: “I got up and sang at this karaoke bar in Italy. I didn’t like any of the songs they had so I just got them to clap their hands and sang ‘Lean On Me’ by Bill Withers.” Because of her unique singing voice, Furler was offered the chance to record a song by a local DJ who happened to be in the bar. Fourteen years on and it all seems rather distant and amusing, as Sia recounts holding back the laughter: “I was seventeen and writing about racism and homophobia; I had a message and wanted to change the world. Then I went back to university in Adelaide (the University of Adelaide) to finish studying Italian and Politics and I hated it after having spent a year out of school, so I quit straight away.”